super bowl 2019 post-game ad wrap-up

Super Bowl 2019Post-Game Ad Wrap-up

Ace Metrix. Proprietary and Confidential.

Highlights

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• SB 2019 ads packed an emotional punch, engaging viewers with messages that were humorous, heartfelt, ingenious, and sometimes even eerie or confusing – but rarely boring

– Evoking strong emotions can stimulate high levels of Breakthrough, with humor, heart, and ingenious all exhibiting a positive Breakthrough relationship

• Celebs were out in force, as always, and many brands broadened the appeal of their ads by using multiple celebrities with complementary demographic appeal

• The volume of ads with female leads picked up significantly vs. last year, as brands sought to leverage a theme of empowerment and equality

• Unlike two years ago, ads with political undertones were scarce in 2019, as brands explored lighter-hearted messages to strike unity with viewers

Ace Metrix. Proprietary and Confidential. 3

Super Bowl 2019 Advertising

Insights from 10 Years of Creative Measurement


Methodology: What’s a Super Bowl ad?

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All ads that air nationally on TV between kick-off and the end of the game (i.e., whistle-to-whistle) with the exception of movie trailers and

television promos are considered Super Bowl ads

This report includes ads dating back to 2010, when Ace Metrix started measuring Super Bowl ads – 10 years total

By the Numbers:

2019 Super Bowl

Number of Brands: 43

Number of Ads: 54

Total Ace Metrix Sample Size: ~28,000

Total Ad Time: 36.5 min.

Max Ace Score: 705

Min Ace Score: 310

Avg. Super Bowl Year

Number of Brands: 42

Number of Ads: 53

Total Ace Metrix Sample Size: ~27,500

Total Ad Time: 35.5 min.

Max Ace Score: 680

Min Ace Score: 386


Automotive was not the top advertising industry in Super Bowl 2019, taking a back seat to Technology

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Ad Share by Industryas a Percent of Total Ad Duration

SB 2019

SB 2018

Database (2018)

Automotive

Automotive

Automotive

Technology

Technology

Technology Retail RestaurantsFinancial All Other Industries

All Other Industries

All Other IndustriesAlc. Bev.

Alc. Bev.

Non-Alc. Bev. Telco

Telco Entertainment


Automotive category’s share of Super Bowl advertising has been in decline for several years

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Automotive

Technology

Alcoholic Beverages


Among the top four industries, this year’s Auto ads performed the best relative to overall category norms

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Automotive TechnologyAlcoholic Beverages

Telco

Average Super Bowl 2019 Ace Score Gap-to-Norm

+58 pts. +14 pts.+34 pts. -3 pts.


Ace Scores of 2019 Super Bowl ads retreated from the 2018 level

Database norm, all ads: 539

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Number of ads:

Super Bowl ten-year norm: 557


We’ve classified respondent-level verbatims into 57 distinctive Emotions across 21 Emotional Lenses

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2019’s Super Bowl ads packed a strong emotional punch

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Funny

59% of 2019 SB ads

vs. 25% of all ads

Eerie

35% of 2019 SB ads

vs. 17% of all ads

Heartfelt

28% of 2019 SB ads

vs. 12% of all ads

Ingenious

33% of 2019 SB ads

vs. 18% of all ads

WTF

31% of 2019 SB ads

vs. 13% of all ads

Top Emo

Super Bowl ads are trying to accomplish different objectives – some entertaining, some heartfelt, and others pushing specific products. Trying to measure all ads by the

same metric doesn’t say whether they were successful in their own right.


Monday-Morning Quarterbacks: As usual, there was some negative feedback to this year’s crop of Super Bowl ads

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AdAge, February 4, 2019

Vox, February 4, 2019

Wharton School, February 5, 2019

But actual viewers tend to have very different responses to TV commercials than journalists and other media professionals.

By analyzing verbatims collected from hundreds of thousands of survey respondents we can form a more

objective picture of how real viewers felt about this year’s Super Bowl ads compared to prior years’ Super Bowl ads, and

compared to video advertising in general …


Emotions ebb and flow by Super Bowl year, but they tend to be strong, while the ads are rarely boring

Percent of Super Bowl Ads that Registered an Emotional Signal by Year and Emotion

Database norms (~50,000 ads) Shown in Text below Each Emotion


Super Bowl ads with higher levels of Funny, Heart, and Ingenious have tended to achieve stronger Breakthrough …

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Average Breakthrough Score by Strength of Emotional Signal

Emotional Signal bands: None = Emo Quantile 0; Low = Emo Quantiles 32 to 34; Medium = Emo Quantiles 37 to 55; High = Emo Quantiles 66 to 100


… while those that spark more Eerie, WTF, and Boringresponses have suffered lower Breakthrough on average

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Emotional Signal bands: None = Emo Quantile 0; Low = Emo Quantiles 32 to 34; Medium = Emo Quantiles 37 to 55; High = Emo Quantiles 66 to 100

Average Breakthrough Score by Strength of Emotional Signal


Philanthropy ads disappeared in 2019, while other creative themes held relatively steady year/year

Avg. Ace Scores,

Super Bowl 2010-2019 by Theme

584

575

607

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Celebrity appearances declined slightly in SB 2019, but Female celebs were up significantly vs. 2018

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548

Avg. Ace Score,

Super Bowl Ads w/

Celebrities

557


ADTProperty Brothers

(14%)

BumbleSerena Williams

(13%)

BublyMichael Bublé (12%)

SkechersTony Romo (12%)

PepsiSteve Carell (10%)

DoritosBackstreet Boys

(10%)

HyundaiJason Bateman (9%)

PepsiCardi B (8%)

PlantersCharlie Sheen (8%)

DoritosChance The Rapper

(8%)

M&M’sChristina Applegate

(6%)

AmazonHarrison Ford (6%)

2019 Super Bowl Celebrities: Percent of Verbatims in Which Selected Celebrities Were Mentioned by Name

2019 Super Bowl Celebrity Name Resonance

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Four Trends That Emerged from 2019’s Super Bowl Ads


2019 Super Bowl Trends:

#1 Brands Extend Their Reach with Multiple Celebrities

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% of Celebrity Ads% of Celebrity Ads with

Multiple Celebs

Multi-celebrity ads increased in SB 2019 vs. last year

Average Breakthrough Scores (SB 2019)

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Single Best Thing: Characters (22%)



Polarity Percentile: 6th Polarity Percentile: 7th Polarity Percentile: 20th

Celebrity pairs that complement each other can help brands achieve broad demographic appeal

PepsiAmazon Doritos

Celebrities: Forest Whitaker, Harrison Ford, Broad City Stars,

and the Nasa Twins

Celebrities: Chance The Rapper and the Backstreet Boys

Celebrities: Steve Carrell, CardiB, and Lil Jon

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2019 Super Bowl Advertising Trends:

#2 Females Take Center Stage

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The female-forward approach was evident in SB 2019

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Female Celebrities Females with Dialogue Exclusively Females with Dialogue

Percent of 2018 and 2019 Super Bowl Ads, by Female Role


Ads from a cross-section of industries leveraged female leads to communicate messages of empowerment and equality

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Category – Websites

Ace Score – 553

Breakthrough – 636

Top Emotion – Powerful

Category – Candy and Gum

Ace Score – 643


Top Emotion – Funny

Category – Beer

Ace Score – 489


Top Emotion – But

Category – Skin

Ace Score – 518


Top Emotion – Curiosity

Category – Malt Beverages

Ace Score – 520


Top Emotion – Surreal

Category – Non-Luxury Auto

Ace Score – 596


Top Emotion – Narrative

Category – Airlines

Ace Score – 460


Top Emotion – Curiosity

Category – Websites

Ace Score – 478


Top Emotion – But


Bumble’s ad with Serena had a more favorable gender-equality profile than Olay’s funny slasher-parody spot

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Bumble – “The Ball Is in Her Court” (0:30)

Breakthrough: 636 (GenPop); 677 (Females)


#1 Emotion: Powerful (top 4% of all ads)

Olay – “Killer Skin” (0:30)

Breakthrough: 656 (GenPop); 667 (Females)

Single Best Thing: Visuals (25%)

#1 Emotion: Curiosity (top 2% of all ads)

… but both ads connected emotionally and broke through among female viewers


2019 Super Bowl Trends:

#3 Brands Retreat from Political Themes

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Americans believe the NFL has become more politicized –and this has had an effect on Super Bowl viewership

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Based on 2,074 responses to Ace Metrix LIVE surveys conducted on February 4, 2019.


Most viewers are comfortable with a brand taking a stance, but doing so can also lead to economic backlash

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Based on 2,074 responses to Ace Metrix LIVE surveys conducted on February 4, 2019.


Viewer feedback reflects a significant decline in political themes over the past two Super Bowls

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Values above reflect the percentage of open-ended verbatims that include political terms: “politics”, “trump”, “hillary”, “clinton”, “conservative”, “liberal”, etc.

That was then: SB 2017 This is now: SB 2019

etc. …

7.7%

4.3%

3.7%

2.2%

1.4%

7.7%

4.3%


2019 Super Bowl Advertising Trends:

#4 Brands Step Forward with a Humorous Spin on Technology

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Light-hearted tech themes were both common and engaging in Super Bowl 2019

“RoboChild”TurboTax

“Not Everything Makes the Cut”

Amazon

“Fear Is Everywhere”SimpliSafe

Breakthrough: 568

Top Emo: Eerie

Breakthrough: 718

Top Emo: Funny

Breakthrough: 660

Top Emo: But

Breakthrough: 621

Top Emo: But

“Robots”Michelob Ultra

Robots take our jobs, drones spy on us, and other sinister

twists take place in SimpliSafe’s comic depiction

of the world we live in

A human-like robot is a total boss at high-

impact workouts, but longs for the simple joy

of sipping on a beer

Amazon shows viewers that not everything is

meant for voice-activated technology in this

humorous self-parody

RoboChild is told it can’t be a TurboTax live-CPA

when it grows up because it’s not human –

a horrifying fate

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Robots, drones, and home devices – viewers can relate to our uneasy relationship with emerging technology

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super bowl 2019 post-game ad wrap-up

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